A BILL to amend and reenact §60A-9-5 of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended, relating to permitting duly authorized
agents of the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner to inspect
certain confidential information concerning controlled
substances that is required to be kept by the State Board of
Pharmacy.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §60A-9-5 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended,
be amended and reenacted to read as follows:ARTICLE 9. CONTROLLED SUBSTANCES MONITORING.

§60A-9-5. Confidentiality; limited access to records; period of
retention; no civil liability for required reporting.

The information required by this article to be kept by the
State Board of Pharmacy is confidential and is open to inspection
only by inspectors and agents of the State Board of Pharmacy,
members of the West Virginia State Police expressly authorized by
the Superintendent of the West Virginia State Police to have access to the information, authorized agents of local law-enforcement
agencies as a member of a drug task force, authorized agents of the
federal Drug Enforcement Administration, duly authorized agents of
the Bureau for Medical Services and the Workers' Compensation
Commission, duly authorized agents of the Office of the Chief
Medical Examiner for use in post-mortem examinations, duly
authorized agents of licensing boards of practitioners in this
state and other states authorized to prescribe Schedules II, III
and IV controlled substances, prescribing practitioners and
pharmacists and persons with an enforceable court order or
regulatory agency administrative subpoena: Provided, That all
information released by the State Board of Pharmacy must be related
to a specific patient or a specific individual or entity under
investigation or examination by any of the above parties except
that practitioners who prescribe controlled substances may request
specific data related to their Drug Enforcement Administration
controlled substance registration number or for the purpose of
providing treatment to a patient. The board shall maintain the
information required by this article for a period of not less than
five years. Notwithstanding any other provisions of this code to
the contrary, data obtained under the provisions of this article
may be used for compilation of educational, scholarly or
statistical purposes as long as the identities of persons or
entities remain confidential. No individual or entity required to
report under section four of this article may be subject to a claim
for civil damages or other civil relief for the reporting of
information to the Board of Pharmacy as required under and in
accordance with the provisions of this article.

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(NOTE: Strike-throughs indicate language that would be
stricken from the present law, and underscoring indicates new
language that would be added
.)